Magic Moments
by BabyJane14
Summary: She sees the real him, something no one's ever bothered to look for before.


100 threads of magic and defying the odds even when the bashers try really hard to bring us all down. Congrats girls! we made it and there will be a million more celebrations to go

- now take yourself back to the Bass Wedding

this is what they neglected to show us

xoxo

Manda

* * *

"_It's a long story"_

"_I have time"_

She had all the time in the world to listen to him talk and to try and help him through the things that were on his mind, the day that plagued his thoughts and made him just they much more unable to concentrate. Nate Archibald wasn't one to usually be able to concentrate or think correctly. There was something about Vanessa, something about her that made him able to think for himself and want to talk through his problems. She listened, she didn't judge, and above everything she was always there. Vanessa was his one true escape from the chaotic world around him.

With her hand tightly laced with his own they'd walked for over an hour around the city. He'd spilled everything to her, everything about parental expectations and their wrong doings that he didn't feel like he could or should have to handle anymore. He hadn't been the one to screw up they like had, he was just the one that had to clean up the shambles they'd left their life in. Now his father was on the run and his mother was acting like everything was just perfectly fine, like sending the Captain away would just ice over the problems he'd caused to everyone. Anne Archibald didn't like to face the facts that she was no better than everyone else.

As he'd poured out every excruciating detail Vanessa had listened, she'd squeezed his hand in reassurance and made sure they hadn't gotten run over by oncoming cabs while they crossed the street. She had taken care of him the way that no one else had, she never judged. That's was one of the many things that made him pull her closer to him as they stood in front of his brownstone. He held her for just a moment, inhaling the scent of green apples and lilacs.

It was a scent he'd come to realize that was better than any expensive perfume Blair or Serena combine had ever worn. He'd memorized it the night they'd slept together on the floor of the café. He hadn't been trying to take advantage of her, it was just a heated passion that couldn't have been put out once it was ignited. Unlike his past hookups, this was one he didn't view as a hookup, and, he knew they he had no regrets to it. From what he could tell she didn't either. They could both breath together, even in all of the heated and looming city air.

Both of their eyes were shut as she slid her arms around his neck and pulled him tighter to her body. He could feel his own desperation to not let go swirling around in his chest. There really wasn't any other place he wanted to be, no where besides anywhere she was.

"Where's your mom tonight?"

"I don't know, some convention or something out of town"

"You sure you'll be alight alone after the day you've had?"

"Yea… no"

"Come on, Ruby's not home you can stay the night. I don't think I want you home by yourself anyway."

He looked like a child in a candy store as his sapphire eyes lit up at the thought of not only not being alone for the night, but, of the thought of being content with her. Vanessa shook her head with a smile on her face as she pulled away from their embrace and slid her fingers through his. They didn't need any more words communicated as they turned away from his place and headed for the subway, a packed ride to Brooklyn would be better than any special attention from calling a driver. Vanessa just wasn't that type of girl, she didn't need any special treatments or fancy things. She was just completely content being with him and just him.

The ride was short they they'd gotten off a stop early just to walk. Vanessa knew the familiarity of her surroundings with her eyes closed. Nate didn't mind a second of it, it was his chance to listen to her talk about her past. How her parents were very liberal, both artists, both didn't seem ready to have two daughters never mind two nearly adult daughters. Ruby's coming out party when Vanessa was thirteen, there were even sex toys at the sixteen year old's bash. Nate was intrigued and every bit deserved the slap on the arm he'd received, anything to make a little bit of color rise in her cheeks. He valued her playful embarrassment just as much as she did his laugh.

She talked about birthday parties with paper pin the tail on the donkey, being eight and having her father give her his whole glass of gin after telling her it was a glass of juice. Kindergarten when she first met Dan, just little bits here and there about her life that made him hang on her every word. Her not being like the rest is what kept him guessing, made him want to get to know her, the real her. That was what she gave him, no sugar coating. Every time she opened her mouth he got the truth, unlike anyone else always gave him.

"Did you eat anything at the wedding?"

"You mean with Blair sitting over my shoulder dictating my every move?"

"I'll take that as a no"

"Did you?"

"Wedding food always sucks."

She should have felt reticules walking around Wholefoods in the bright yellow and orange dress. It wasn't all that often that Vanessa Abrams worried about what others thought about her. But when she had her hand laced with the Upper East Side pretty boy nothing else seemed to matter very much. She was where most of the girls in Manhattan would have liked to be. Vanessa could have cared less if he looked like Frankenstein, there was just something about Nathaniel Archibald that made her want to stay there and learn more, and get to know him, the real him better than anyone had bothered to in the past. Why she was so intrigued by him she didn't know, but he was so much more then the person he was preserved to be on the outside.

Never would either of them have thought they were so much of the same and so different at the same time. Between crunchy peanut butter and creamy she chose crunchy as he went against her and chose creamy, chocolate and vanilla ice cream she chose the chocolate. By the end of their brief shopping trip he'd received the title of boring and lame and she'd taught him things that were different from what he'd always known. Yet somehow he'd been the one to pick up the ingredients of dinner. They'd both come to learn the facts that she couldn't cook.

He had been the one to pick out everything they'd need for dinner. The chicken, mushrooms, Marsala wine… everything he remembered off of memory. She was very impressed with him over it all. She'd been the one to pick up desert, from the bakery of course. She didn't have to be born and raised on the Upper East Side to have an acquired taste for Tiramisu.

He'd paid for everything even after she'd insisted she would. Of course Nate wouldn't allow that. He picked up their bag and laced his hand with hers before heading out of the store and back on their rout to her place. Never once did he let go of her hand, it was the only thing keeping him grounded, she made him… happy.

"Dinner's almost done"

"Great, the movies in"

"What are we watching?"

"Pretty Woman"

"I figured"

Standing at the stove in his boxers and white tee shirt she couldn't help but laugh at him. It was something you only saw in tacky ads she'd thought. He'd forgotten to go inside and pick up clothes, so there really wasn't much for him to work with. She was all changed into sweat pants, her hair thrown up in a messy bun, to say the least she didn't have a problem with being herself around him. Turning around with two plates of their dinner in his hands, he walked forward and kissed her forehead before walking past her into the small living room.

The couch was pushed back against the wall and blankets were spread out on the floor, the Whinny the Pooh blanket Vanessa slept with every night no top of it all. Nate had to laugh, there were so many things about Vanessa the outside world didn't know. He was just happy to be the one getting to know the real Vanessa, no walls and no boundaries. He'd never seen anyone be so comfortable as who they were as Vanessa was. No one he'd grown up with or around had ever been anything like that.

He placed the two bowls down on floor and laid down on top of the quilts as she followed right after him. Laying down right beside him she leaned up on her elbows as he turned his head and kissed her forehead. Everything was perfect for the night, on one was getting into their own perfect night. Even if it had to be placed on hold soon so that he could figure out his mess of a family life she'd still be there waiting for when everything got better. Waiting for him to come back to her like she knew he would in the end.


End file.
